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May 25, 2000

Pitt, Penn State faculty pay on main campuses is similar

Pitt lags in regional, librarian pay

There aren’t great differences between average salaries of faculty at the Pitt and Penn State main campuses. Full professors in State College make more than full professors in Oakland, on average, while Pitt associate and assistant profs slightly outearn their PSU counterparts.

But the average salary of a faculty librarian at Penn State’s main campus is $5,300 higher than that paid to Pitt main campus librarians.

And faculty at Pitt regional campuses earn an average of $6,300 to $13,200 less annually, depending on professorial rank, than their counterparts at Penn State branch campuses.

English professor Phil Wion, who chairs the University Senate’s budget policies committee, said he compiled the statistics — using data from Pitt’s Office of Institutional Research — because Pitt and Penn State are uniquely comparable: They are the only two members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) in Pennsylvania with “state-related” status.

Unlike Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities, the four state-related schools (Pitt, PSU, Temple and Lincoln) get substantial Commonwealth funding but function much like private institutions.

Pitt’s administration argues that comparisons between faculty pay at Pitt and PSU satellite campuses are skewed because Penn State branches emphasize business, engineering and other disciplines that pay comparatively high faculty salaries, while course offerings at Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville campuses are more comprehensive, with greater emphasis on the humanities.

Wion replied, “It’s hard to know exactly what variables are behind these numbers. Nevertheless, these are the best publicly available figures we have. And certainly, the magnitude of the differences between the faculty salaries paid at Penn State’s branch campuses and our regional campuses is so great that it’s clear we have some catching up to do.”

Regional campuses were among several Pitt academic areas that received extra salary money from the Provost’s office for market and equity raises last year, Wion noted approvingly.

Main campuses The average salary of a PSU full professor in State College is $89,900, compared with $85,900 for a Pitt full professor in Oakland.

Pittsburgh campus associate professors earn an average of $60,600, while assistant profs here make $50,800 — $200 and $600 more, respectively, than their counterparts at PSU’s main campus.

Librarians at the Penn State main campus are paid an average of $49,800, compared with $44,500 for Pittsburgh campus librarians.

Branches The AAU classifies Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown campuses as Category IIB branches — campuses that focus on baccalaureate-level education.

Full professors at Penn State’s Category IIB campuses earn an average salary of $66,700. That’s compared with $57,600 at Pitt’s Bradford campus, $57,700 at Pitt-Greensburg and $59,400 at Pitt-Johnstown.

Associate professors at PSU Category IIB campuses make an average of $56,800. At Pitt-Bradford, associate professors earn an average salary of $46,700. Associate professors at Pitt-Greensburg and Pitt-Johnstown get paid an average of $46,600 and $48,100, respectively.

Assistant professors at PSU Category IIB campuses earn an average of $46,300. That’s compared with $39,000 at Pitt-Bradford, $36,600 at Pitt-Greensburg and $37,100 at Pitt-Johnstown.

Pitt-Titusville is in Category III — campuses that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor’s level.

At Penn State Category III campuses, associate professors earn an average of $52,800, compared with $39,600 at Pitt-Titusville.

Assistant professors at PSU Category III campuses make an average of $46,000, compared with $33,400 at Pitt-Titusville.

Titusville employs only one full professor, so salary information was not reported for that rank there. Among PSU Category III campuses, full professors earn an average of $66,000.

— Bruce Steele


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